Columbia Journalism’s Dean Lemann to Step Down After Decade

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Nicholas Lemann, a longtime
contributor to the New Yorker magazine, will step down as dean
of Columbia University’s Journalism School after a decade in the
post.

Lemann will leave in June 2013 at the end of the academic
year, the New York-based school said today in a statement.
President Lee Bollinger will lead the search for a successor.

The 10-year term was “the happiest season of my career,”
Lemann said in the statement. “Together we have accomplished a
lot, for the school and for our profession.”

Under Lemann’s stewardship, the New York-based school added
20 members to its full-time faculty; built a student center;
completed its first capital fundraising campaign; and created
new initiatives in investigative reporting, digital journalism
and executive leadership for news organizations, according to
the school’s website.

“The many tangible benefits of Nick’s transformative
leadership are felt today not only by students attending the
Journalism School but also by the profession and the society
more generally,” Bollinger said in the statement.

Alongside the Master of Science program that teaches the
basics of reporting, Lemann inaugurated the school’s Master of
Arts journalism program to give experienced journalists a year
of study across the university in four specific areas: arts and
culture, health and science, business and economics, or
politics.

Under Lemann, the Columbia Journalism Review, which the
school publishes, began a daily online edition, as well as
publishing six times a year in print.

Tuition Costs

The cost to attend the journalism school’s 10-month Master
of Science program is an estimated $81,222, including tuition,
room and board and living expenses.

Helen Gurley Brown, the late editor of Cosmopolitan
magazine, gave the school $18 million in January to fund
fellowships, endow a professorship and create a modern newsroom
on campus. It was the largest gift in the journalism school’s
history. Brown died in August at the age of 90.

Lemann has published books including “Redemption: The Last
Battle of the Civil War”; “The Big Test: The Secret History of
the American Meritocracy”; and “The Promised Land: The Great
Black Migration and How It Changed America.”

The journalism school was founded by Joseph Pulitzer in
1912. Columbia University administers the Pulitzer Prizes for
journalism, literature and musical composition.

Alumni of the journalism school include Joseph Lelyveld,
former executive editor of the New York Times; Steve Kroft of
CBS News; and author Erik Larson, who wrote “The Devil in the
White City.”